Workforce
diversity

Focusing on racial diversity

We recognize that the racism experienced by minorities, particularly our Black colleagues and communities, can be acute. Within our workplace, we’re taking specific actions to contribute to racial equality and stop racism, with a heightened focus on increasing racial diversity within the workforce. For example, in North America we hold ourselves accountable by measuring our ability to increase hiring, promotion and retention of diverse colleagues.

In 2020, we implemented a series of listening sessions with our clients, the Invesco Black Professionals Network and other internal Business Resource Groups. Communications kits for managers encouraged dialogue within teams, and Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the U.S., was established as a paid holiday for U.S. employees.

Juneteenth
is a paid day off for Invesco’s
U.S. employees

Invesco continues to invest in education at all levels and includes an effort to address systemic racism and racial inequity, reducing unconscious bias and building an inclusive culture in our workplace. In 2020 and 2021 these efforts included:

The Race Card Project

Invesco’s top leaders in North America will attend a training program with The Race Card Project. Focusing on personal perspective and connection, the training’s goal is to enhance empathy and emotional understanding. The Race Card Project is designed to provide participants a chance to step into someone else’s shoes and build more inclusive bonds as an organization.

Disrupting Everyday Bias

Senior leaders at Invesco participated in Disrupting Everyday Bias trainings, a half-day workshop designed to help leaders explore how bias functions in the brain and impacts business decisions, talent conversations and other interactions. The program began in our North America region and expanded to EMEA and Asia Pacific in 2020.

Unconscious Bias Training

For people managers, Invesco introduced Unconscious Bias training, a two-part virtual course highlighting that bias is part of the human condition (how the brain works), and it affects how we make decisions, engage with others and respond to situations. The program includes scenarios and breakouts focused on building diverse connections with others through empathy and curiosity, encouraging diversity of thought and ways to engage and address biases. Nearly all Invesco people managers attended the program in 2020, and we are expanding the program with the goal that the entire company will complete Unconscious Bias training by September 2021.

Celebrating our Black colleagues

In February 2020 during Black History Month, Invesco launched the Invesco Black Professionals Network (IBPN) with an event at our Atlanta headquarters featuring Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. More than 200 employees attended. The IBPN fosters connectivity and collaboration among our employees and engages them in personal and professional enrichment opportunities such as mentoring, community outreach and cultural awareness. As with all Invesco BRGs, all employees can join. In 2020, IBPN hosted ally training sessions aimed at building understanding of Black employees’ experiences. The IBPN was also integral in how we responded to Black employees quickly and thoughtfully throughout the events of 2020 and will be instrumental in supporting our long-term plan to increase racial representation and inclusion at Invesco.

A focus on gender diversity

Although many aspects of diversity are country- and culture-specific, the need for greater gender diversity is a constant across the globe, which is why we begin with a focus on gender diversity at the enterprise level.

We’ve committed to a goal of 35% women in senior management positions by the end of 2022. We are on our way to meeting this gender diversity goal with 33% of senior management positions being held by women at the end of 2020. Originally, we set a goal of 30% of women in senior operating roles by 2020, which we exceeded by the end of 2019 by reaching 32%.

Our CEO and senior managing directors (SMDs) lead and role model our main efforts around gender diversity through a pledge based on the UK Women in Finance Charter, which includes the following components:

To promote an inclusive culture and provide development opportunities for our female colleagues, Invesco provides ongoing support to the Invesco Women’s Network, our BRG focused on gender parity, which facilitates a mentoring program and hosts various internal and external events throughout the year. This year the Invesco Women’s Network hosted a virtual workshop with PwC called “Communicating with Confidence” to explore the significant impact that confidence can have on work performance and how it varies for men and women.

We apply the UK Women in Finance Charter initiative to Invesco globally, with the CEO and each SMD responsible and accountable for gender D&I

We sponsor D&I activities that will aid in achieving the higher end of our female representation of senior managers target and will support having greater diversity across the globe

We established annual performance goals for our CEO and SMDs that are designed to support gender and broader diversity and inclusion activities

Female representation of Invesco senior managers, by reporting year
%

2018 27%
2019 32%
2020 33%

This year, we also offered a four-part Invesco Women’s Webinar Series to replace our annual Women in Leadership program. More than 600 participants joined webinars on the following topics:

Lift as You Climb: The Power of Community
Rumbling Through Vulnerability
Say What You Want—Say What You Mean
Building Advocacy & Allyship

To help increase the female talent coming into the firm, we engage in partnerships with organizations such as the Forte Foundation, which works to launch women into fulfilling, significant careers, and Rock The Street, Wall Street, a financial literacy program designed to spark the interest of high school girls in careers of finance.

We are also focused on increasing proactive management of our existing high-potential female talent, looking horizontally across the organization for development opportunities.

Workforce diversity